Ardagh to increase cullet use with Briquette Project

Ardagh plans to commercialise its Briquette Project, which will create more usable material for furnaces and reduce CO₂ emissions.

The Briquette Project will facilitate the use of material that, at present, is not able to be used in furnaces.

It involves taking any fine material that cannot go into a furnace, compounding it into a pellet, and then adding it to the furnace.

John Sadlier, Chief Sustainability & Procurement Officer of Ardagh, said the project is now in the final stages of being commercialised, and should be fully commercial by 2023.

The project won in the category of Sustainable Practice at the 2020 Glass Focus Awards.

From the pilot, Ardagh will be able to extract more usable material for furnaces.

Using cullet reduces emissions as it takes less energy and removes process emissions.

Mr Sadlier said that the reduction of CO₂ emissions was essential to ensure the future of glass.

He believed that glass packaging could become delisted in the future due to its high carbon content if public moods were to shift more towards anti-carbon.

Using cullet could help Ardagh reduce its Scope 3 emissions, of which 53% come from producing soda ash.

The group is also working with the US to improve its glass recycling plants, and is pushing for greater collection in Brazil and Africa, by investing directly and indirectly in new recycling facilities.